his shadow | eddie munson

↝ chapter eight

highway to hell - ac/dc
9 | decaying
☿

eddie was getting worse. his skin had gone paler— it looked pure white, his undertones a mixture of blue and green and his veins darkening more and more. and he'd gone from coughing up blood to throwing it up, but he still refused to go to a hospital.

"please eddie, you need help." maude tried reasoning with him.

he shook his head. "no, it's not happening. you can't treat a dead person— i don't even know if i have a pulse!"

maude surveyed him. he shook vigorously like he were freezing cold, and the whites of his eyes were reddened, his irises a hollow black. he looked like he was decaying. "do you want me to check?"

he paused to consider before he nodded, and he outstretched his closest arm to her, trying his best to focus on the road while he drove. maude had thought about offering to drive, but she'd never learnt how to— never been offered to be taught.

her finger grazed over his wrist, jolting slightly when they made contact with his ice cold skin. she pushed back the layer of wristbands, chains and bracelets that he wore, and pressed two fingers to the area where his pulse would be located. she breathed slowly, focusing her entire strength and soul into checking. she didn't need to wait for long, as soon as she adjusted, she felt the pulse. it was quick— too quick. she wanted to be glad that he had a pulse— but this didn't seem right.

she moved suddenly, closer to eddie, who side glanced her as her fingers reached for his chest, but she paused before she made contact. "may i...?"

he nodded slowly. "yeah, go ahead."

she placed her palm on his chest where his heart sat, and waited. it was just as fast. she tried counting how many times it beat per minute, but she couldn't keep up. "are you struggling to breathe? do you feel like you're getting enough oxygen?" she began questioning him, her mind thinking back to the times she'd studied the human body in school.

eddie's eyebrows furrowed. "no, i feel... i'm breathing fine. do i have a heartbeat or not?"

maude sat back, her hand removing from his chest. it shook a little— she couldn't believe that she'd just done that. touched eddie munson. "you have a pulse, a heartbeat—but it's very quick. too quick... i couldn't keep count."

"huh..." his lips pressed into a thin line.

"maybe you... maybe you didn't die—" maude tried, searching through her mind for any logical answer or theory.

"i did, we established that. i thought... i thought that i wouldn't have a pulse, that i was, like, a zombie— something undead, like vecna... i thought..." he trailed off, and pulled the van over again, parking it on the side of the road. he burst out and slammed the door shut behind him. maude thought to go after him, but decided to give him his space. instead she made her way into the back of the van and reached for her backpack. she sat against the wall and pulled out her sketchbook, opening to a new page and letting her hand carry her away.

maude didn't know if it was appropriate to continue drawing eddie, but she couldn't help herself. he was her muse, after all. she had been drawing a light sketch of eddie as he drove his van, and had decided to make it as accurate as she could— including his matted hair, hollow eyes, wounds and bruises and dirt, the blood-soaked hellfire shirt. she never drew him without his hellfire shirt. she did a slight detail on the inside of his wrist, small lines that formed a heartbeat, but she made them quick and erratic.